The Plight of The Eclipse
by Arkion Mezbaron
Summary: after the destruction of halo the chief and cortana help to save a fleet dreadnaught
1. The Plight of The Eclipse

Ok I don't own any characters in this story nor do I intend to infringe on copywrite  
  
AUTHOR: Master Templar Location: After the ring world of Halo was destroyed  
  
"Cortana just where the hell are we headed." growled the Master Chief his voice eerily modified by his armor.  
  
"How should I know" snapped Cortana "this is just a longbow fighter class ship it's not capable of jumping all the way back to earth and our sensors were damaged by the EMP released by Halo when it blew so we have no way of knowing where we are or contacting a pick up"  
  
"Great, out of the frying pan and into the abyss, well at least there aren't any Covenant out here," the chief muttered as he made his way to the cargo hold.  
  
"And just where are you going" Cortana called after him.  
  
"I'm going down below to see just how much weaponry this tub has." The chief responded.  
  
"Alright, I'll keep the short range scanners that are still intact up, but I don't have much hope," Cortana said as she operated the last sensor to scan the immediate area. It was a lightweight sensor that wasn't powered up when the EMP destroyed all other operating systems on the ship. As she was doing this she also noted how low on fuel they were, if they were going anywhere it better be close or they wouldn't make it.  
  
"Not bad!" thought the chief as he opened the weapons locker, "this must have been one of the boarding craft." There was enough ammo and weaponry in this ship for an entire platoon of marines, maybe two if they conserved ammo. "Well at least if the Covenant decide to board our little ship I'll be able to hold them off" the chief thought grimly as he loaded up a MA5B Assault rifle with the standard armor piercing rounds. He decided that he would leave the rocket launcher unloaded for safety purposes.  
  
"Well at least we have a few guns down below" the chief said as he climbed out of the hold.  
  
"Chief I think I have something!!!" Cortana yelled "It's..oh no.. it's the Dreadnaught eclipse and it's under some serious fire from two Covenant carriers. If we don't do something the eclipse won't make it!"  
  
"Cortana," the chief said calmly. "Set a direct course for the closest carrier's hanger entrance. Looks like those guns may come in handy after all." 


	2. Countdown

Accelerating" Cortana called as the longbow sped toward the heated battle ahead. "Chief this isn't good, we're running on fumes, I don't know if we can make it!"  
  
"Stay on course Cortana." The Chief said in that same oddly pacified voice of calm serenity. "If we run out of fuel the momentum will still be enough to carry us to our objective."  
  
"Coordinates logged in.pull me" Cortana said as she made a few slight course adjustments. As the longbow sailed even closer to the pitched battle below, it became apparent to the Chief that the human Dreadnaught was not faring well. The two covenant carriers were using their vastly superior maneuverability to assault the eclipse from all angles, and not allowing the massive ship to fire its MAC guns. The carrier that the chief was targeting was hovering just out of range of the MAC cannon's radius, and was moving slowly toward the left side of the eclipse.  
  
"The Covenant aren't using their weapons." The Chief observed as he removed the AI from the starboard computer consul and slipped it into his helmet slot.  
  
"Why wouldn't they use their-" Cortana began.  
  
"Their attempting to board the eclipse. They want information, they want.Earth. So let's put a stop to their boarding party, and see if they think turnabout is fair play. How long until we breach their hull Cortana?" The Chief asked calmly.  
  
"I'd estimate around two minutes" Cortana responded.  
  
"I think its time to get out the big guns." The Chief said with a grim smile that only he was aware of. He made his was back down to the weapons locker. "This should come in handy." The Chief grunted as he hoisted two rocket launchers on to his shoulders. "When we hit the carrier we'll have a few surprises for our welcoming committee." He made his way bock to the entry hall and placed the rocket-launchers down then returned to the weapons locker for ammo.  
  
"About a minute left." Cortana commented as the Chief checked to see that his ammo pouch was full.  
  
"Good we're right on schedule,." he responded as he lifted four rocket-launcher reloads onto his back, and proceeded to climb back into the entry. The Chief began to load the rockets into their launchers, taking his time to make sure that they were all perfectly loaded and ready to go.  
  
"Ten seconds!" Cortana's voice sounded within his helmet. "Nine!" Chief lifted the first rocket onto his right shoulder. "Eight!" he then slid the second launcher next to him for quick use. "Seven!" he punched the emergency landing button on the consul. "Six!" The Covenant ship covered his entire field of view. "Five!" The Hanger was open waiting to board the eclipse. "Four!" The Chief braced himself for the impact shifting the rocket on his shoulder so he would not drop it. "Three!" Cortana counted, her voice agitated. "Two!" The Covenant hanger was right there, and the Chief could see the individual grunts, jackals, and elites. "One!"  
  
The line of troops preparing to climb aboard their respective drop- ships scattered as the longbow plowed through them. The ship slid across the deck only coming to a rest after decimating most of the drop-ships, and a fair number of grunts. An elite was screaming orders to a jackal in his odd warbling voice when the hatch of the human vessel opened and smoke poured from inside. There was a pause where nothing moved but the smoke. Suddenly a rocked streaked out of the smoke striking the elite square in the chest, blowing a smoldering hole in his armor. The grunts in the immediate area were incinerated.  
  
"Step one complete" thought the Chief, as he darted out of the longbow's hatch. "Infiltrate the enemy ship. Now for step two, survive." 


	3. Gravity Jumps and Sword Fights

"What the hell just happened to that covenant carrier!?" yelled captain Nikolai to his tactical officer, Major Harrison, as the eclipse lurched in an attempt to shake off the Covenant boarding parties. Nikolai, who usually kept his Captains uniform crisp, clean, and spotless, was looking rather worse for ware .His cloths were ripped from constantly hitting the deck, and his usually sleek handlebar mustache was split on one side.  
  
"Sir, it looked like a longbow fighter Sir!" responded Harrison  
  
"But that's not possible all our longbows were destroyed." The captain commented, more to himself then the rest of the crew. "But one thing's for sure something made that ship loose trajectory."  
  
"Sir the MAC gun is ready to fire Sir!" Harrison declared.  
  
"Yes, yes that's all very well and good, if we could get through there damn shields." Responded the captain impatiently. "If only we still had our nuke we may be able to survive this encounter." Thought Nikolai. The nuke would be the perfect thing to shut down there shields, just long enough to get one MAC round through to the Covenant Bridge. "Ok people, we need a plan, one ship is apparently breaking off, but the other is still a threat, we need to shut down there shields. Harrison tell all the gunners to aim at one point of the shield, and see if they can burrow through, if they break through, fire the MAC. God help us if it doesn't make it."  
  
Meanwhile back on the covenant ship. "We need to get to the bridge; if we can get there I can hack the ships targeting computers, and give that other carrier a bit of a surprise." Cortana commented as the Chief leaned around the supply barrel, just long enough to fire a few rounds at the large group of jackals that were attempting to pin him down, and received a plasma shower in return, exactly where his head had been seconds earlier.  
  
"That's not a bad idea, but first we go to the engine room." Responded the Chief as he lobbed a grenade over the barrel, the familiar fwump sound and the shower of purple blood that issued over the barrel told the chief the grenade had done its job. He shouldered the MA5B standard assault rifle and rolled out from behind the barrel. He looked over the wreckage of the longbow, checking for movement, spotted a grunt lumbering absentmindedly along the far wall, oblivious to the death of his comrades. The chief put him out of his misery with two shots from the rifle. The Chief moved along the wall to what he assumed was an elevator; it looked like an upright coffin with a glass door the metal seemed to glow with an eerie light.  
  
"Any idea how to use that thing?" asked Cortana.  
  
"Nope." Responded the Chief with a shrug. "But I think we can figure it out" he said as he stepped into the light. He stood there for a few seconds without a change, and was about to step back out when he was propelled upward. After a few seconds the gravity lift slowed and finally stopped, as the glass door opening into a large room full of computers, and unfortunately for the Chief Covenant.  
  
"Fun time!" Cortana yelled as plasma melted the metal just above the chief's. The Chef dove behind a computer consol, as more plasma struck the place he was standing just before. "It looked like there were three elites, and a few grunts no jackals" Cortana informed the chief.  
  
"Good, no ricocheting, those shields can be a nuisance" The Chief said as he dove out from behind the computer, rifle blazing. The Chief landed, rolled, and came up on one knee. The three elite were taken by surprise, and warbled as bullets pinged off there shields. The Chief primed a grenade, and tossed it into there midst. The leftmost elite, a red one, "probably the leader" thought The Chief, dove out of range, but his comrades fell victim to the blast of the grenade, one took the blast full in the chest, the grenade scrambled his organs despite his shields, the second was farther outside and was thrown by the blast into the wall of the carrier, smashing his skull inside his helmet, and sending his purple blood splashing over the deck. The Chief meanwhile was priming another grenade, and lobbed it into the group of grunts, they barked, and screamed but were too stupid to move, and were blown all over the deck. Sensing vulnerability, the last elite decided to charge The Chief, this was a mistake, the elite swung his oversized arm in a deadly ark, but The Chief ducked beneath it, and stepping quickly behind the elite struck a bone shattering blow to the base of its spine, the elite fell writhing to the floor.  
  
"Well that was fun now wasn't it?" Cortana muttered.  
  
"Nothin I couldn't handle Cortana." the chief said with, what Cortana assumed, was his sad attempt at humor. "So just where are we?"  
  
"Not sure.....wait ok by my calculations we are most likely two floors under the bridge, in what appears to be a gravity control center." Cortana said as the chief stepped over the body of the red elite. He slung the rifle on his back and approached the computer.  
  
"Cortana, could you figure out how to work this thing if I planted you inside?" he inquired.  
  
"Wont know until we try now will we...pull me big guy." The chief felt Cortana's presence withdraw back to the chip, and with her left a part of him, one that made him feel less lethal, and more like a lonely soldier. He withdrew the chip from his neural interface, and placed it in the slot in the covenant computer. It didn't fit well, and the chief was afraid she might not be able to do what he needed done.  
  
"You look concerned." Cortana's voice echoed from what the chief concluded to be a speaker.  
  
"Just worried you wouldn't work." He shrugged.  
  
"Oh ye of little faith." She responded with a laugh. "Ok, I'm in, what do you need."  
  
"Turn off all the gravity in areas away from the bridge except in the barracks. I want it to the max there." He said with grim satisfaction, as he thought of what the big-bad elites would become at that pressure, there own armor would crush them.  
  
"Ok just a second... done, and now to deactivate the alarm... done." "Can I come home now?" she complained.  
  
"Not just yet" the chief chuckled "I want the quickest rout to the bridge, avoiding our gravity traps of course"  
  
"Easily done...ok pull me"  
  
"Good let's get to that bridge" the chief said as he pulled Cortana  
out of the computer, and placed her back into the interface. The  
familiar feeling of heightened sensitivity was exhilarating; he felt  
the reflexes of the most advanced AI ever created flow through his  
MJOLNIR battle armor. "Let's go crash us a ship." He said as he made  
for the lift.  
  
"I was wondering when you'd say that" Cortana chuckled. The chief stepped into the gravity field and hit what he believed was the up button and waited, after a few seconds he was tossed upward at a rapid rate of speed, and then once again slowed, and stopped. The room he was in was dark, and he could not see the corners without his light, but there appeared to be no enemies. The chief scanned the room and saw no signs of covert ops. He walked forward toward the only door in the room, which was large and had many runes carved into it. He shouldered the MA5B and stepped up to the door, still holding his rifle he hit the button to open the door.  
  
"My God Sir!" yelled Major Harrison as the eclipse was hit by another blast "We can't take any more!"  
  
"What we need now is a miracle." Nikolai responded. "If we could just get a clear shot ... SIT STILL!!!" he yelled at the monitor showing the assaulting carrier.  
  
"Sir, your orders sir?" Harrison asked.  
  
"My orders? If that shield so much as flickers wrong, fire the gun!" Responded Nikolai.  
  
"Where is everyone?" Cortana asked as the chief stepped into a seemingly vacant bridge. The bridge was large, and open. It seemed to be a perfect circle, with a platform extending at its diameter, the platform was a good thirty feet in width and length, and this is where the chief stood. The Chief noted that there were more rune covered plates lined against the walls, but unlike the one on the door, these were all glowing.  
  
"I'm not sure." he answered, but they must be here somewhere. As he said this a golden elite attacked him from behind one of the rune plates on his right. He was wielding a beam blade, and attempted to strike a killing blow, but the chief rolled to the left, and slid across the ground, emptying his clip into the elite's belly. The elite warbled as the bullets tore through his shield and ripped at his intestines. He screamed on last time, and fell to the ground in a bloody heap.  
  
The chief stood, and breathed a sigh of relief, too soon. As a second elite attacked from behind the computer at his flank, this time the chief was stuck, so he leapt backward as the blade sizzled the air inches in front of him. He rolled, and found his hand had fallen upon the blade of this elite's fallen comrade. The elite attacked again, with more ferocity than his disemboweled brethren, the chief lifted the blade, and blocked his downward thrust. They hung there, as if suspended in time, then leapt apart, the rifle lay forgotten by the side. The Chief dashed forward, and brought the blade around for a horizontal slash. The elite brought his blade around at the last moment to block it, the chief, rebounding off of the block, spun and brought the blade around for a strike from the left, but the elite blocked that one as well, with much difficulty. The chief, seeing an opportunity, shifted his weight, griped the elites arm, and shoved the elite backward into the computer. The elite wrenched his hand out of the chiefs grasp, and struck him on the temple. The chief was knocked senseless.  
  
Dazed, but still conscious, the chief raised his sword to defend himself. The elite swung madly at him, he blocked the elites swing with ease, and spun to his left, swinging the blade in an ark above his head. The elite lifted his blade to block the blow, and the chief kicked him in the stomach while his guard was in the air, the elite spun into the door and fell in a heap next to his brother. The elite was down, but not out, and rose from the bloody mess more enraged than ever. He dashed at the chief, and struck his block so hard that the chief's blade was knocked clear out of his hand, and went spinning out across the deck.  
  
Unarmed, and cornered, the chief's wandering feet bumped the barrel of his trusty gun. With one motion he rolled over it, lifted it, and shouldered it. The elite leaped into the air, and was sent spinning across the deck by a stream of bullets. But the shield of this elite was far more powerful than most, because he was the captain of this ship, and one of the mightiest of warriors. The chief dove for his beam sword, griped the handle, and stood, fully armed once again. Unfortunately for the chief the elite captain had landed next to his brothers side arm, a plasma pistol, the elite aimed, and fired, knocking the chief head over heals backward, where he lay motionless.  
  
The elite captain moved in for the kill. He stood over the human warrior, and lifted his blade, as he did this the chief rolled over, and activated the hidden beam sword, the elite captain had no time to react, and was struck directly in the neck by extending blade. In a shower of purple blood, his severed head rolled across the deck. 


End file.
